This is an I-Heart podcast.

Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of IHeart Radio.

Good morning. This is Laura.

Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

Today's tip is to invite people to share meals with you.

You have to eat, so you may as well use the opportunity to connect.

An essay in the most recent World Happiness Report claimed that sharing meals with others is related

to subjective well-being, and that people who share meals with others have higher levels of

life satisfaction and positive effect. But according to the essay, we're sharing meals with

others less frequently than we used to. The American Time Use Survey finds that

one in four Americans reported eating all their meals alone the previous day, up 53% since 2003.

If people who eat together tend to be happier, and fewer Americans are eating together these days,

no wonder a lot of people report being unhappy or disconnected.

Now, to be sure, it's not absolutely certain what direction that association goes.

Perhaps when people are unhappy, no one wants to eat with them. And so it's not the shared

meal that's causing happiness. But it's also pretty easy to share meals with people, and given

that you have to eat, you might use meals as an occasion to bring more people into your life

regularly. In most cases, you and they will be happy that you did.

For instance, maybe your elderly neighbor or the college student who rents the house next

years might want to join your family for dinner some night. It doesn't have to be a fancy

dinner party. My guess is that they would be

absolutely fine with the same pasta you are feeding your kids. Your work friend might be happy to

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